by Travis Normand
Yesterday, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic tried to re-write history by calling the war crime of Genocide a “grave crime.”
Serbia’s new president revives Balkan tensions by denying Srebrenica massacre was genocide
BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia’s new nationalist president has been in office for less than a week and he’s already rocking fragile Balkan stability and casting doubt over his proclaimed pro-European Union policies.
Tomislav Nikolic, a former ultranationalist ally of Serbia’s wartime leader Slobodan Milosevic, revived ethnic tensions in the still volatile region by stating that the Srebrenica massacre, in which Bosnian Serb forces killed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995, was not genocide but a “grave crime.”
Read more at: The WashingtonPost.com
Today, June 5th 2012, the U.S. State Department issued a press statement in order to voice their position on President Nikolic’s comments.
Serbian President Nikolic Denies Srebrenica Genocide
Press Statement
Mark C. Toner
Deputy Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington D.C.
June 5, 2012The United States deplores the statement made by newly elected Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic denying genocide in Srebrenica.
Genocide in Srebrenica is not a subjective determination—it is a defined criminal act which the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has confirmed in final and binding verdicts in multiple cases. The International Court of Justice also has concluded that genocide occurred in Srebrenica. It cannot be denied.
Read more at: State.gov
The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) 